12 May 2014

Central register for anonymous sperm donor records

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Written by

IVF Australia

Today’s media coverage announced government plans to establish a central register of past anonymous sperm donor records, allowing offspring to apply for non-identifying information about their donor father.

At IVF Australia we recognise the distress that past anonymous sperm donation practices have caused. Nowadays, we take an open approach to sperm donation and all our donors are counselled about the long term implications of donation and are willing to provide identifying information for later access by the donor-conceived child.

When we are approached by donor offspring we are very happy to provide them with access to as much information as we can about their origins, including free counselling and support through this process. Where the donation was originally obtained with a promise of anonymity we will contact the donor to see if he is willing to release identifying information to the child.

At IVF Australia, we regard the medical record as being sacrosanct and will not alter any details.

We welcome the fact that the privacy of donors who donated, altruistically, in the past to help other people have a family on the basis of an anonymous arrangement will have their anonymity protected.

We are concerned about possible legislation requiring us to hand over medical records to a central body and would like to better understand the safeguards that will be in place to protect the privacy of this information, particularly identifying information about the donors.

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